Butterfly

The two people who were talking froze for a moment.

Same face, same experience, they are the same person and the ones who understand each other best.

Just one look, one eye contact, and you can know what the other person is thinking.

So, Jiang Jiang asked, why must we die?

There's no reason, they just...

You have to do this.

Jiang Qing quickly pressed the man against the waist-high wall with one hand, and then grabbed the man's throat with his hands and dragged him out.

"Don't!" Jiang Qing was stunned by the sudden change in the situation.

Jiang Qing shouted, "Don't come over here!"

Lin Nanyan had to stop.

Jiang Qing turned his head to look at his men. The skin on the girl's neck quickly turned red and swollen to the color of a rotten persimmon, so bright that it was burning.

The air in her chest cavity decreased rapidly, and tears welled up in Jiang Qing's eyes. She raised her eyes to look at her expressionless face above.

She reached out with difficulty to grab the other person's hand that was pinching her throat and slapped it twice.

Does it hurt?

They are the same person. She is in pain, how can she not be in pain?

If it hurts, let go.

This level is enough.

Jiang Qing understood the meaning behind the flushed face. She nodded slightly, glanced at the dizzying height below, and closed her eyes.

Such a posture… Jiang Qing and Lin Nanyan shouted forward at the same time, "Jiang Qing!"

Jiang Qing turned a deaf ear to him. She took a deep breath and threw the man down.

Lin Nanyan said angrily: "Are you going to turn Jiang Jiang into a murderer?"

"Tell me," the boy's roar echoed in her ears. Jiang Qing tightly grasped the man she had just let go of and almost fell. She slowly turned her head and looked at the boy she had always ignored. She said word by word, "What?"

Lin Nanyan stared at her, "There is no surveillance here."

"You said that the existence of time travel will be erased. If Jiang Qing died here," he stared at the girl, "tell me, who will the police think killed her?"

"You? Me?" he asked. "Or Jiang Jiang?"

Jiang Qing curled her fingers slightly, "The police will find out."

"Okay, even if the marks on her neck can prove Jiang Jiang's innocence, what about the memory of death?"

The boy's tone was extremely cold, but every word touched the string in Jiang Qing's heart.

She spoke with difficulty, "Memory?"

Jiang Qing's fingers couldn't help but tremble. She knew what Lin Nanyan wanted to say. She raised her hand to stop him, but her hand stopped in mid-air.

"The memory of you dying in front of Jiang Jiang in Aoki Park."

The boy's words were blunt and cruel, forcing people to take his words seriously.

Jiang Qing's palm was burned, her face turned pale, and she immediately turned to look at the silent Jiang Qing.

Silence is the best answer.

"Impossible," Jiang Qing murmured, "This is impossible, obviously..."

She saw in the loop that Jiang Qing had no memory after Jiang Qing died.

The location that Jiang Qing had described so clearly before was just a gap caused by a time jam. It was not like she had never seen someone have the illusion of time overlapping occasionally.

Jiang Jiang is a very smart girl and she has always known it.

As long as the timeline covers the past, everything will return to normal.

Lin Nanyan didn't give her time to think further. "Jiang Qing is stuck in a loop. She has the same memories as you do. Even in the loop you're experiencing, her memories are temporarily shackled due to a time paradox."

"But nine years later—"

He paused, "Nine years later, when she travels back to the present time, all her memories will return."

"Including your death."

Every word was clear to Jiang Qing's ears. His face turned as pale as a piece of paper. "Jiang Jiang..."

That day, she never thought that she would die in front of Jiang Jiang.

"Jiang Qing," Jiang Qing took a deep breath, suppressed all the emotions rising in her heart, and said softly, "If you really regard me as a friend."

"Even for just one day, I beg you... please tell me why?"

"Why did you do that?"

She stared at Jiang Qing, as if she wanted to see into the deepest part of her heart.

The fog gradually dissipated and the rooftop became empty, so that Jiang Qing could clearly see the crystal clearness and stubbornness in the girl's eyes.

Maybe it took a long time, or maybe less than a second.

"Because of insurance," Jiang Qing said, his voice hoarse and every word was difficult to say, "I bought insurance."

"As long as it's homicide, my family will get compensation."

"From now on, our family will no longer have to rent a shabby house, no longer have to be bossed around at the factory just to make a little more money, no longer have to worry about being kicked out for not paying next month's rent in full, no longer have to drag our sick bodies around just to avoid having our wages deducted..."

"Jiang Jiang, I've already lost my dad." Jiang Qing didn't blink as cold liquid slid across his face. "I can't lose my mom again."

Jiang Qing found it inconceivable. "So you think your mother can lose her daughter again after losing her husband, right?"

"Do you think your mother will be happy if she gets the money her daughter earned from her life?"

Until this moment, this was the first time that Jiang Qing was truly disappointed in a girl.

"You don't want to go through the pain again, so you force others to suffer."

"Jiang Qing, you are so selfish."

Jiang Qing raised the corners of his lips, and there was nothing in his eyes soaked in water.

"Yes, I am very selfish."

She said: "People like me deserve whatever fate they get."

"Jiang Jiang," the girl's voice was light and airy, "You shouldn't come near me."

As she spoke, she looked up at the sky. The stars appeared from the dark clouds. Jiang Qing was stunned. The time was almost up.

Lowering his head, he said, "Go away. I don't need your overflowing kindness."

"It's unnecessary and meaningless."

Jiang Qing really wanted to turn around and leave, but her feet had their own ideas and were firmly nailed to the spot, making her unable to turn around.

On the rooftop, the two sides stood opposite each other, neither willing to admit defeat.

Lin Nanyan looked at the girl under Jiang Qing. She was already in a semi-comatose state due to cerebral congestion caused by prolonged hypoxia and inversion.

As long as Jiang Qing is still here, Jiang Qing will not push anyone down again.

But if a little more force is applied, coupled with prolonged lack of oxygen, a person may suffocate to death.

He thought of Jiang Qing’s actions just now. What was in the sky?

Lin Nanyan looked up. In the dark night, the fog dissipated and the stars gradually emerged. It was very late.

Time, it’s time!

He suddenly understood that Jiang Qing had been waiting for that loop node.

Before, she thought that as long as she was seriously injured and dying, it didn’t matter if she took more or less action. But now, in order to ensure the end of the cycle, Jiang Qing wanted to kill the other self at that moment.

But only Jiang Qing knows the exact time of that cycle node.

The rooftop fell into dead silence, and no one spoke.

The wind blew past and blew away.

"Do you really have to look at me like this?" Jiang Qing asked.

Jiang Qing raised an eyebrow, "Why, you're not allowed to look?"

"I've never seen someone kill themselves before, so it's fresh for me to watch. Is that okay?"

Jiang Qing closed her mouth and faced the girl's burning gaze. For the first time, she felt that time was so unbearable.

But soon, it will be over soon...

"Ding-ling-ling——" The familiar cell phone ringtone suddenly rang.

For some reason, Jiang Qing had a bad feeling in her heart, and she looked in the direction of the voice.

It’s Jiang Qing’s call.

Jiang Qing still stared at Jiang Qing without blinking, but her hand had already picked up the phone smoothly.

"Hello--"

"Jiang Jiang, there's something I think I should tell you," the familiar loud voice was hesitant at this moment, "Please don't be angry when you hear it."

"I'm not angry," Jiang Qing thought. She was already completely mad. Nothing could make her angrier than Jiang Qing's matter. "You say."

Song Shuang was instantly relieved: "Zhao Xiaona, you know, I told you before, my junior high school classmate, the one nicknamed Little Trumpet..."

Jiang Qing: "Get to the point."

"She told me that recently, news has spread in our school that Jiang Qing is a pervert. They say she's been secretly following you and is mentally ill..."

Jiang Qing suddenly interrupted her, "Who are you talking about?"

"Senior Jiang Qing," Song Shuang thought the rumors were a bit too outrageous, but she still chose to tell her best friend everything, "It's just you and me, naming you by name, with all the details."

Jiang Qing unconsciously clenched her phone.

Song Shuang: "And weren't you looking for that recorder last time? Zhao Xiaona thought it looked familiar, and then after this news came out, she remembered that the recorder you lost seemed to have been picked up by a girl in a high school uniform."

"She also told me that she guessed it was Senior Jiang Qing who picked it up. How could it be such a coincidence? Hahaha..."

Song Shuang was still saying something in her ear, but Jiang Qing could no longer pay attention to it.

Her eyes fell on the pink and blue butterfly beside Jiang Qing's ear, which was about to fly out. The hairpin was blue in color, with only a hint of pink gradient on the wings.

The familiar color combination and the familiar butterfly shape were once placed in a red shoe box together with a recorder and piled up in the utility room of her house.

Until the day of moving, it saw the light of day again.

It had been so long that she had forgotten whether the butterfly hairpin belonged to her or to someone else.

Until this moment, until this moment.

The butterfly hairpin finally crossed the mountains and rivers, crossed time, crossed memories, and found its way back.

It turns out that it belongs to Jiang Qing.

Lin Nanyan was close, and the poor-quality microphone was able to pick up every word Song Shuang said, so he could hear it clearly.

He suddenly recalled the recorder that disappeared and then returned for no apparent reason.

Although the returned recorder was made to look as old as possible, with even the stickers on the surface and the recording files inside restored one-to-one, it is still fake after all.

Lin Nanyan could see it, and Jiang Qing could see it too.

But that day, Jiang Qing still accepted it silently.

Lin Nanyan didn't ask any further questions, and Jiang Qing didn't explain.

At this time, he finally knew where the recorder had gone.

Looking down, the girl's eyelashes fluttered, and finally she said, "I know."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Qing raised her eyes and stared at Jiang Qing for a long time. All the actions of this girl from the time she met her until now were presented in front of her, and her behavior also had a clearly visible logical chain.

The end of that chain is her.

Jiang Qing found it difficult to describe the look the girl gave her after she hung up the phone. She moved uncomfortably, like a snail that had been curled up in its shell and suddenly had its protective shell taken away one day, leaving it naked and exposed, making her want to escape.

"Jiang Qing," the girl called her, "Is it because of me?"

Jiang Qing replied in confusion, "What?"

"Your choice," Jiang Qing repeated, "is it because of me?"

"No!" Jiang Qing heard it clearly this time, and she rejected it categorically, like a cat whose tail was suddenly stepped on, and her fur stood on end.

"I said," she said viciously, "I just want the insurance money."

"Don't take yourself too seriously. Everything I have has nothing to do with you."

Jiang Qing did not interrupt or butt in, but just looked at the girl quietly after she finished speaking.

"It turns out it was really because of me."